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Whether it’s the ‘thank God that’s not me’ aspect; a national curiosity about the murkier side of life; the fact that detective stories have a built-in dramatic structure with mystery, tension and resolution; or simply that commissioners shovel them onto screens in such volume that audiences can’t help but eat them up – crime drama is riding high on UK television, and by the looks of the list below, going nowhere in 2025 and beyond.
Including true crime, cosy crime, period-set crime, comedy crime and more, here are the new British crime TV series on their way this year and next. From Scandi Noir adaptations to two new takes on Agatha Christie, to a refreshed Sherlock Holmes, and several modern gangster series aiming to fill the Peaky Blinders hole, find something to suit your taste below.
We’ll keep this list updated as cast and release date information arrives, and new commissions are announced. For a look at everything new coming to UK TV in 2025, here’s our New British TV Series list, and to see which shows are due to return this year and beyond, here’s our Best Returning British TV Series list.
RELEASE DATES CONFIRMED
Missing You
It’s a new tradition: a new Harlan Coben crime thriller on Netflix with which to nurse your hangover on New Year’s Day. 2025’s is Missing You, which stars Slow Horses’ Rosalind Eleazar as DI Kat Donovan, a no-nonsense detective whose love life has been drifting ever since her fiancé left her without a word over a decade ago. Now he’s just reappeared on an online dating app, the man who murdered her father is about to die in prison, and a university professor has gone missing – how all these things connect is for viewers to find out over five episodes. Jan 1, Netflix
Patience
Based on the French-Belgian series Astrid et Raphaëlle, this six-part British crime drama stars A Kind of Spark’s Ella Maisy Purvis as a police archivist with autism whose talent for crime-solving is discovered by a detective (Laura Fraser). Together, they sleuth around the beautiful historical city of York, solving murders. Jan 8, Channel 4
An T-Eilean/The Island
Trumpeted as the BBC’s first Gaelic-language drama, this crime series is set on the beautiful Scottish islands of Lewis and Harris, and follows the return of a young detective to the isles after she left abruptly years earlier. Back at home, Sorcha Groundsell’s character investigates a murder centring around a stately home. Jan 14, BBC Four & iPlayer
Bergerac
Being Human’s Damien Moloney puts on the leather coat and gets behind the wheel of the Triumph Roadster to play Jersey-based detective John Bergerac, a staple of 1980s British television originally played by John Nettles in the long-running detective series. This six-part reboot comes from Being Human, Doctor Who and The Red King writer Toby Whithouse. Feb, U&Drama & U
RELEASE DATES TBC
Adolescence
If you’ve yet to watch Boiling Point, director Philip Barantini’s ultra-tense restaurant-set feature film, then rectify that asap and follow it up by the similarly great BBC One continuation series. Then, you’ll know why the combination of Barantini with screenwriter Jack Thorne (Best Interests, His Dark Materials) is something to get excited about. For Netflix’s Adolescence, they team up with actor-producer Stephen Graham to tell the four-part story of a teenager accused of murdering his schoolmate. Netflix
Bookish
As well as winning Olivier awards and spooking us with his yearly Christmas ghost stories, actor-writer-director Mark Gatiss has returned to the world of crime fiction with his new series Bookish. Set in 1946, it’s the story of Gabriel (Gatiss), a seller of antiquated books who helps the local police solve crimes using his vast library and esoteric knowledge. Gabriel’s a gay man forced to live in the closet due to the era’s bigoted laws against homosexuality, and is in a “lavender” marriage with his wife to help him to remain hidden. Alibi & U
Catch You Later
Jason Watkins and Robson Green star in this four-part Channel 5 thriller about a retired detective (Watkins) whose suspicions are aroused when a new neighbour (Green) uses a phrase that featured in a famously unsolved murder from years earlier. Has his chief suspect just moved in next door? Channel 5
Code of Silence
Not to be confused with the ropey 2021 Kray Twins movie or the similarly ropey 2021 Maine-set redemption feature of the same name, Code of Silence will be a six-part ITV thriller starring EastEnders actor, Strictly Come Dancing champion and deaf activist Rose Ayling-Ellis. It’s the story of Alison, a deaf caterer hired by the police to work as a forensic lip reader, and who develops feelings for one of the main suspects. Filming began in October 2024, so don’t expect to see this one until later in the year. ITV
Cold Water
The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln returns to UK drama in this six-part ITV crime thriller about a couple (played by Lincoln and Indira Varma) who uproot themselves and move to a remote Scottish island in the hope of a fresh start. There, Lincoln’s character strikes up a fast friendship with their oddball neighbour (played by Euan Bremner), which sends alarm bells ringing in his wife’s mind. ITV
Death Valley
This six-part BBC Two/BBC Wales series features a Welsh detective and a retired actor famous for playing a detective teaming up to solve crimes. Written by Trollied’s Paul Doolan, it stars Timothy Spall as national treasure John Chapel, beloved for fictional television show ‘Caesar’, and Gwyneth Keyworth as DS Janie Mallowan. BBC Two/BBC Wales
Department Q
Netflix has transported the action of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Danish noir novels to Scotland for this English-language adaptation of the popular crime series. A Discovery of Witches’ Matthew Goode plays Carl Morck, a detective traumatised by a previous case in which one colleague died and another was paralysed. Goode stars alongside Scottish acting greats Mark Bonnar, Kelly Macdonald, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie. Netflix
Dope Girls
Bad Wolf, the Wales-based producers of His Dark Materials, A Discovery of Witches and now, Doctor Who, are behind a new 1920s-set crime drama. Pitched as a spiritual successor to Peaky Blinders, it’s about the female gangs who operated in London’s Soho after World War One, and was inspired by Marek Kohn’s 1992 non-fiction book of the same name, subtitled The Birth of the British Drug Underground. Mare of Easttown’s Julianne Nicholson and Little Women’s Eliza Scanlen star. BBC One
Down Cemetery Road
Adapted from a book by Mick “Slow Horses” Herron by one of that show’s writers Morwenna Banks, Down Cemetery Road has plenty to recommend it before we come to a cast including Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson, Adeel Akhtar, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Tom Riley, Tom Goodman-Hill and many more familiar names. Coming to Apple TV+, it’s the story of Sarah (Wilson), a woman who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a young girl after an explosion, and who teams up with a police detective (Thompson) to get to the truth. Filming wrapped in autumn 2024. Apple TV+
Get Millie Black
This HBO/Channel 4 co-production already aired in the US in November 2024, so there shouldn’t be too long a wait for it to arrive in the UK. It’s the story of a Jamaican-born detective who’s forced out of her job in London and has to return home to Kingston where her work on the missing persons unit leads her to a Scotland Yard detective. The five-part drama was written by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James. Channel 4
Fear
A three-part psychological thriller set in Glasgow is coming to Prime Video, starring Line of Duty’s Martin Compston, Vigil’s Anjli Mohindra and Game of Thrones’ Daniel Portman. Fear is adapted from the novel by Dick Kurbjuweit and tells the story of a family who relocate to Glasgow from London to make a fresh start, but whose lives become a nightmare of suspicion and terror after accusations fly from a neighbour. Prime Video
How to Kill Your Family
Bella Mackie’s take on Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets was a huge hit in publishing, and there’s no reason that this Netflix TV adaptation won’t perform just as well. After all, it stars Anya Taylor Joy (Furiosa, Dune II, Peaky Blinders, The Queen’s Gambit) as lead Grace, the illegitimate daughter of a mega-rich man who cruelly left her and her mother out in the cold. Determined to get her revenge on his whole family, Grace sets about doing just that – with murderous results! Netflix
I Fought the Law
Some true crime for you now: Sheridan Smith plays real-life figure Ann Ming, a legal campaigner who fought to overturn the UK’s double jeopardy law (in which a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime) following the mistrial of her daughter’s murderer. With a screenplay by Jamie Crichton inspired by Ming’s own memoir For the Love of Julie, this four-parter promises to be emotional. ITV
In Flight
From the makers of Marcella comes In Flight, the story of an air stewardess who is blackmailed into smuggling drugs by a criminal gang who’ve framed her son for a crime that’s left him serving a 15-year sentence in a Bulgarian prison. Filming began on the series in November 2024. Channel 4
Legends
Here’s one to keep an eye out for: Netflix’s Legends is the work of Guilt and The Gold writer Neil Forsyth, which guarantees it’ll be clever, funny, exciting and worth your time. The six-parter’s premise looks promising too – it’s inspired by the true story of a group of Customs employees who went undercover in some of the UK’s most dangerous drug gangs. With only basic training, these amateur spies were sent in under assumed identities to try to crack the drug smuggling trade. There’s no cast announced as the commission was only announced in August 2024, but with a Forsyth script and Netflix money, it’s sure to attract some great names. Netflix
Mint
If you’ve yet to see Charlotte Regan’s BAFTA-nominated film Scrapper, about a young girl using her wits to survive following the death of her mother and a reluctant reunion with her estranged father, it’s highly recommended. No surprise then, that the BBC has snapped up Regan’s TV series Mint, which follows the children, mother and grandmother of a firmly entrenched crime family. With eight half-hour episodes, this one’s being billed as a crime drama about “love, darkness, humour and the plain weirdness of living alongside that world.” BBC
Penance
BookTok star Eliza Clark, whose debut novel Boy Parts went huge on the platform, had more success with her second novel Penance. As these things go, that’s now being developed for the screen, with novelist and screenwriter Juno Dawson behind the adaptation. Penance is fiction but styled as a true crime novel, and is a North Yorkshire-set story about the murder of a teenager by three of her school friends. It’s in the early stages yet, so cast and filming details will follow.
Playdate
From the producer of Netflix’s massively popular Harlan Coben thrillers, this five-part Disney+ series is a child-abduction story with a top cast including Strike and The Capture’s Holliday Grainger, This is Going to Hurt and One Day’s Ambika Mod. It’s about a mother who realises her daughter has been taken when she goes to collect her from a sleepover at a friend’s house, and comes adapted from Alex Dahl’s bestselling novel of the same name. Disney+
Protection
Another ITV crime drama here, this one focusing on the world of witness protection. Inspired by the real-life experience of a witness protection officer, it’s the story of a detective inspector caught up in police corruption and forced to protect individuals who are far from innocent. Even if all that sounds pretty generic, there’s a top cast involved that should excite matters, including Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran, Peaky Blinders’ Charlotte Riley, The Long Shadow’s Katherine Kelly and Champion’s Nadine Marshall. This is another ITVX streaming drama that’ll arrive on the terrestrial channel at a later date. ITVX
Reunion
Ann-Marie Duff, Eddie Marsan and Rose Ayling-Ellis will star alongside Matthew Gurney and Lara Peake in BBC One thriller Reunion. This four-part drama centres around a recently released prisoner unravelling the truth behind the events that led him to being sentenced for a heinous crime. It’s set to foreground several British Sign Language-speaking and deaf actors, and comes from a script by by Sheffield-born deaf writer William Mager. Filming began in May 2024. BBC One
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?’ Lucy Boynton will play Ruth Ellis, the last woman to have been hanged by the state in England in this four-part ITV true-life drama, also starring Mr Bates vs. the Post Office’s Toby Jones. Ellis was a nightclub manager in a violent relationship with a man she killed, and her 1955 sentencing was subject to a legal battle aiming for her release. It’s written by Des, The Long Call and Baptiste writer Kelly Jones, and will play out over two timelines. ITV
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
True crime veteran screenwriter Jeff Pope (The Walk-In, The Reckoning, Four Lives) is bringing the London 2005 shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes to the small screen for Disney+. The shooting of an innocent Brazilian national who was wrongly suspected of being a terror suspect was the event that inspired Jed Mercurio to create Line of Duty, and now will receive the Jeff Pope treatment in this drama, which has the co-operation of the Menezes family. Disney+
The Assassin
Imagine if you found out your mum was once an international assassin? You’d have questions, wouldn’t you? That’s the case for Freddie Highmore’s character in this new six-part Prime Video series from the makers of The Missing, The Tourist and many more. Highmore (Bates Motel) plays Edward, the son of Keeley Hawes‘ Julie, both living on a Greek island when Julie’s past catches up with her and throws a spanner in the peaceful mother-son relationship. Filming began in August 2024. Prime Video
The Choice
For fans of Netflix’s glossy political thrillers about women with amazing blow-drys in dreadful dilemmas, The Choice will star Julie Delpy and Suranne Jones as, respectively, the French and British prime ministers, whose lives are thrown into disarray when a kidnapping happens at an international summit. It comes from Bridge of Spies screenwriter Matt Charman, and began filming in March 2024 so may arrive on the streamer sooner. Netflix
The Crow Girl
Interestingly, we have Slash of Guns ‘N Roses fame to thank for this one. The guitarist-turned-producer reportedly bought the rights to the Swedish psychological thriller novel from which this detective series was adapted, and sold them on to its production company. The Crow Girl comes written by Clique‘s Milly Thomas, and stars Eve Myles and Katherine Kelly as a DCI and a psychotherapist who join forces to hunt a killer of young men. Paramount+
The Seven Dials Mystery
Former Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall‘s next TV project is this Agatha Christie adaptation for Netflix. It’s the 1920s-set story of a prank that leads to murder in a country house, and stars How to Have Sex‘ Mia McKenna-Bruce, alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Martin Freeman and Edward Bluemel. It was filmed in and around Bristol and Bath in summer 2024, so there shouldn’t be too long a wait now for it to arrive on the streamer. Netflix
The Rumour
This couldn’t sound more Channel 5 if it tried – glamorous mums locked in a spiralling psychological drama about secrets, lies, online rumours and murder! Emily Atack, Rachel Shenton and Joanne Whalley play the leads in a story adapted from Lesley Kara’s novel of the same name, about a woman who moves to a quiet town with her young son, but who gets into a sticky situation when she uses a rumour about a local child killer to ingratiate herself at the schoolgates. Channel 5
The Puzzle Lady
The wonderful Phyllis Hughes (Guilt, Downton Abbey) will lead this six-part Channel 5 crime drama adapted from a best-selling series by US author Parnell Hall. Hughes will play Cora Felton aka ‘The Puzzle Lady’, a crossword aficionado who assists the police with murder mysteries in the sleepy town of Bakerbury. It all sounds as cosy as a hot chocolate wrapped in a wool blanket, and will be one for fans of Agatha Raisin perhaps. Channel 5.
The Au Pair
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr David Suchet back to TV! The Poirot star is returning to screens in the role of George, the diabetic father of Zoe (Sally Bretton), a woman who appears to have it all, but whose life unravels after she hires a beguiling French au pair, played by Lupin‘s Ludmilla Makowski. Channel 5
The Undertow
Jamie Dornan fans stand by, because you’re about to get double Dornan. The Tourist and The Fall star is playing identical twin brothers in this English-language remake of Norwegian series Twin. Coming to Netflix, the Sarah Dollard-adapted series tells the story of Adam (Dornan) and Nicola (Mackenzie Davis), a couple living in the Scottish highlands in a loveless marriage whose lives are shaken up when Adam’s twin Lee comes to stay. Netflix
The Witness
Coming to Netflix this year is a three-part true crime drama based on the tragic murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, London, in 1992. The Victim writer Rob Williams is behind the script for the miniseries, which stars Peaky Blinders‘ Jordan Bolger and Invasion‘s Max Fincham as Nickells’ partner André Hanscombe at different ages, alongside Neil Maskell, Mark Stanley, Kerry Godliman and more. Netflix
This City is Ours
From writer Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom, Shardlake) comes Liverpool-set BBC One crime drama This City is Ours, an eight-episode thriller that looks well-suited to fans of Gangs of London and Peaky Blinders. It stars Sean Bean as the head of the Phelan family of lifetime criminals, and is set between Liverpool and Spain. Filming took place in May 2024 so there shouldn’t be too long a wait to see this one. BBC One
Towards Zero
The Seven Dials Mystery isn’t the only Agatha Christie adaptation arriving this year; BBC One also has one in the form of Towards Zero, adapted by Rachel Bennette from Christie’s 1944 novel. The cast here looks great, not only thanks to the presence of Anjelica Huston, but also one of the best new young actors around – Ella Lily Hyland, who made an excellent debut in Prime Video tennis coach abuse drama Fifteen/Love and was one of the highlights of Netflix’s Black Doves. BBC One
Tuva
Will Dean’s Dark Pines – the first in his crime series about deaf investigative journalist Tuva Moodyson – was published in 2018, and is currently being adapted into a six-part TV series that relocates the action from Sweden to the UK. Rose Ayling-Ellis (see Code of Silence above) is attached to play the lead role of Tuva, who investigates a local serial killer poised to strike again. As this one’s still being developed, it’s unlikely to air before 2025, but when it does, it’s being planned as a returning series.
Under Salt Marsh
Yellowstone‘s Kelly Reilly returns to the UK in Welsh crime drama Under Salt Marsh, in which she plays Jackie Ellis, a former detective who became a teacher after her career fell apart following the disappearance of her niece. When one of Jackie’s pupils drown in a storm out at sea, her old partner (Rafe Spall) leads the investigation in the small town of Morfa Halen. Sky.
Untitled Guy Ritchie Project
Following the success of The Gentlemen on Netflix, Guy Ritchie is now taking the crime family genre to streamer Paramount+, and with quite a cast. Tom Hardy, Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan are among those attached to star in the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels‘ director’s next TV project. It’s the story of two warring clans and the fixer (Hardy’s Harra Da Souza) tasked with protecting them. Paramount+
Virdee
Amit Dhand is the novelist behind the Bradford-based DI Harry Virdee detective series, and he’s currently working on a screen adaptation for BBC One. Doctor Who and Wolf’s Sacha Dhawan is set to star in the six-episode drama’s title role, playing a detective inspector investigating the kidnap of a local MP’s daughter. We don’t know much more about this one, but with Dhawan as its star, it’s on our radar. BBC One
Young Sherlock
Speaking of Guy Ritchie (see above), the director has another project in the works, this time for Prime Video. Young Sherlock is adapted from the Andrew Lane novel series following the Great Detective while at university in his pre-Baker Street days. Ritchie is set to direct and produce the eight-part series, and has gathered a starry cast including Colin Firth, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone and actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Google his full name, it’s worth it), nephew to Joseph and Ralph. Prime Video
RETURNING UK CRIME TV SERIES
– After The Flood Series 2
– Beyond Paradise Series 3
– Death in Paradise Series 14
– Father Brown Series 12
– Gangs of London Series 3
– Karen Pirie Series 2
– Grantchester Series 9
– Miss Scarlet Series 5
– Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators Series 5
– Sherwood Series 3
– Silent Witness Series 28
– The Bay Series 5
– The Madame Blanc Mysteries Series 4
– Trigger Point Series 3
– Unforgotten Series 6
The post New British Crime Drama for 2025: Detective Series, Cosy Crime, Murder Mysteries & Serial Killer Shows appeared first on Den of Geek.
